The second half of our transatlantic cruise aboard Caribbean Princess was actually spent transiting the Atlantic and the days were mostly spent relaxing, reading, playing trivia, enjoying the ocean views, and drinking. All a nice counterpoint to the fairly intensive port schedule of the eight days that had preceded it. During this period I also made a point of taking photos of the cruise ship because they make for lovely memories for us and they can be helpful for people on the web, which, if you’re not a bot of some description, is what you are. So, this post is pretty much just going to be photos from around the ship just to give you an idea what Caribbean Princess – and by extension, most of the other Grand-class cruise ships – looks like.
We’ll start at the aft of the ship and the pool overlooking the wake.
The pool is sheltered above by Skywalkers nightclub, a unique arrangement within the Princess Cruises fleet now that Star Princess and Golden Princess have been sold. The travelator walkway leading to the nightclub is the Skywalk after which it’s named, and after which the nightclub is still named across the fleet’s Grand-class ships even though no other ship has the travelator. The reason for that is due to fuel efficiency as the raised nightclub adds drag and instability to the ship’s normal operation. A shame, because it’s a lot of fun to ride it.
A children’s splash pool area was also present around the nightclub walkway area but this wasn’t a cruise that families were interested in so it was never in use. Right under the walkway is another small but deep pool that was rarely if ever used to my mind, but the reason for that might have been that the high lip on it and metal walkway overhead didn’t make for any sort of view. However, it could be a good option for a quiet soak if it’s windy.
Below are photos of the Skywalk travelator and the daytime interior view of Skywalkers. At night the club would be flashing lights and disco music, but in the day it was usually a nice quiet spot for reading until the early evening when it served as the Elite Lounge, the private snacks and drinks venue for those who reach Platinum or Elite loyalty with the cruise line. Like us.
A generic sports court for all your generic sports needs, which typically involves bouncing balls noisily.
Moving forward along the top deck, this class of ship has two large swimming pools for use by everyone.
The pool photos above were both looking forwards on the ship. In the photo below you can see the view backwards instead, catching one pool and the Movies Under The Stars screen over the other pool behind.
At the front of the ship there is the Sanctuary Pool (also called the Lotus Pool). The Sanctuary is an additional charge retreat area at the front of the ship but the pool is free to use and for adults only. It’s small, but good enough for short laps and lounging about and because there are no children allowed and it’s not surrounded by hordes of people taking up all the loungers, it’s the pool that we most often use on these ships. The only real problem with this pool is that because it’s small but has two different depth levels in it, neither of which are particularly deep, it is susceptible to a lot of wave-generation if the sea conditions aren’t great and that means this pool tends to be closed off for safety more often than others.
You can’t say you’re not spoilt for choice when it comes to swimming pools on Grand-class Princess cruise ships.
Staying outside for the moment but moving down a few levels, Caribbean Princess features a full wraparound promenade deck and this affords the closest view of the ship’s wake which is noisy but mesmerising and a firm favourite sight for many cruisers.
The central atrium on Princess ships is known as the Piazza just to be different, and on these ships it spans three decks. It’s where some games take place – typically ones involving the ship’s crew versus passengers, or throwing games where the wind would be a problem – and music is played at points throughout the day. Shops encircle the upper and central decks around the atrium, while food and drink can be found in bars and the café on the upper and lower levels.
At the aft of the ship on deck seven there’s Club Fusion. Captain’s Circle events take place here, trivia is sometimes held, dance classes and group exercises sometimes take place, and in the evening there’s typically a mix of live music and/or comedy, followed by a late night disco session just to compete with that going on in Skywalkers.
Moving forward brings you to the Sabatini’s speciality restaurant (not pictured here) and the Wheelhouse Bar.
Crooners, around the top of atrium, is the Martini bar on Princess ships, and it’s a good one with a great range of drinks, so no surprise that we spent a lot of time here.
Down one deck there’s the Shore Excursions desk – which wasn’t getting a lot of attention during the second half of this cruise for obvious reasons – and the other main speciality restaurant, Crown Grill.
We didn’t really visit the theatre, the gym, or the casino so you’ll have to hunt elsewhere for photos of them.
A general outline of a typical sea day for us, not just on this cruise but certainly also on this cruise, was to get up, have breakfast, do trivia, find somewhere to read for a bit until our cabin was cleaned, go for a swim, have some lunch, read some more but on our balcony now, do more trivia, drink, eat, and disco into the early hours.
Our balcony was very large because decks 9 and 10 on this class of ship have some double-sized ones. We always pick deck 10, though, as it’s partly covered in case the weather is an issue. Deck 9 is fully exposed to the elements and potentially to people looking down from above (it’s never really an issue) but the rooms have lounge spaces too. It’s a trade-off for what’s most important to you.
The next post in this series will be the penultimate one and it will feature some of the food and drink we enjoyed aboard Caribbean Princess on this second week, including speciality dining we treated ourselves to.